Crypto market data provider Kaiko has announced that it has closed an agreement to purchase Napoleon Index from CoinShares, Europe’s largest and longest standing digital asset investment firm.

Kaiko will simultaneously launch Kaiko Indices, a provider of a comprehensive suite of regulated, single-asset and multi-asset crypto asset benchmarks for institutional investors. Kaiko has already received clearance from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) to launch Kaiko Indices and conduct benchmark administration under the EU Benchmark Regulation (BMR) on the 25th of April 2022.

The company also announced the appointment of Alexandre Ruggeri as Head of Kaiko Indices. Alexandre brings a wealth of experience in index design and commercialization. He joins from IHS Markit, where he managed the company’s equity index initiative with the transition of services acquired from Euromoney, and the launch of 2,000 benchmark indices regulated by the FCA. Prior to IHS Markit, Alexandre held a position of Index Development Manager at STOXX in Frankfurt-am-Main and London, where he specialized in the design of Smart Beta strategies, optimised for structured products and ETFs.

The deal is highly complementary to Kaiko’s existing product suite for institutional investors and financial institutions and will offer the potential for significant growth in its customer base. Kaiko will launch a number of indices in the coming months to cater to the substantial institutional client demand for regulated products. This transaction follows the recent successful acquisition of Kesitys, a provider of quantitative decision tools for risk optimization earlier this year and is in line with Kaiko’s stated strategy to grow its regulated product suite.

Ambre Soubiran, CEO of Kaiko, said:

“We are delighted to have launched Kaiko Indices and to be licensed under the Benchmarks Regulation by AMF in the ESMA framework. Compliance and regulation are critical to the success of the crypto and blockchain industry and we welcome efforts to introduce regulatory standards that maintain market integrity, transparency, security and investor protection.”

Kaiko is the leading source of digital assets market data, providing businesses with industrial grade and regulatory compliant data. The company empowers market participants with global connectivity to real time and historical data feeds across the world’s leading centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Kaiko’s proprietary products are built to empower financial institutions and cryptocurrency businesses with solutions ranging from portfolio valuation to strategy backtesting, performance reporting, charting, analysis, indices, pre- and post-trade.